From 2008
Her body is sinewy and taut, much like a yoga instructor. Her clear skin, devoid of wrinkles, belies her fortysomething age. And you’ll never believe she’s the mother of three young boys under the age of 10.
 | |
| Susan O’Brien. photography by Allison V. Smith |
Until a few years ago, Susan O’Brien was like any other mother—driving carpool, helping with homework, and trying to eat as healthfully as she could for her triple-booked lifestyle as a stay-at-home mom and wife. But the University of Texas design grad was feeling sluggish, too tired to manage the flurry of activity. She practiced yoga, ran regularly, and thought she was eating well, but she couldn’t shake the fatigue. “I was tired and fatigued, and I couldn’t get to sleep at night,” she says. So she decided to change her diet drastically, eating only raw food—that is, food that hasn’t been heated above 120 degrees.
“Since I was a kid in Houston, I’ve always eaten whole foods,” O’Brien says. “I’ve always tried to stay away from processed food. But I decided that I was going to go raw and really cleanse my body.” For three months O’Brien consumed nothing but raw fruits, nuts, and vegetables. “I didn’t have insomnia anymore,” she says. “I had so much more energy, and I could exercise longer. The quality of my life was better.” She eventually modified the diet to include some cooked fish and the occasional steamed vegetable, and now she eats a 70 percent raw food diet.
But why did it work? O’Brien cites the philosophy of raw food: because it’s all-natural, with no additives, the body doesn’t have to overwork itself to digest. Plus, good-for-you enzymes and essential oils haven’t been cooked out of the food. She truly believes in healing your body through food. “I’m a firm believer that there are oils that can heal and there are oils that can cause disease,” she says. In essence she says that oils that have been heated—say, in roasted nuts—are rancid once they’ve been exposed to heat, causing free radical damage in our bodies. The oils in raw nuts are kept intact. “My cholesterol started at 138, and it’s now 105. My husband’s has gone down 30 points, and that’s mainly just from adding raw nuts to his diet.”
As the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding—er, raw pudding. Soon O’Brien started to wonder how everyone could benefit from what she had experienced. “I looked at other raw food brands, and what I was looking for just wasn’t out there,” she says. She began toying around in her kitchen, making batches of raw food snacks, such as granola, which she gave to friends and family. She received rave reviews from everyone who tried her food, and after a short stint as a raw food caterer, in April 2007, she decided to create her own business with an initial $50,000 investment and advice from her MBA-educated husband, Steve, who is also a business partner and official taster. The name, Hail Merry, is a play on words that works on many levels—for one, this was O’Brien’s last-ditch effort to start her own business. And the tagline—“Feed your body royally”—is a tongue-in-cheek nod to monarchies. Soon after launching Hail Merry, spots such as Roy’s Natural Market and Cabana placed their first orders.
O’Brien trained with raw food guru Juliano in Santa Monica to get her bearings on raw food preparation, and her Hail Merry products have the two key ingredients for success: great packaging and superb taste. Thick almond butter spread—yummy on sliced apples—packs a little heat with cayenne pepper. The incredibly creamy chocolate tart has just a hint of sea salt in the crust. Zero-cholesterol macaroons, moist and delicious, sate that late-afternoon craving for something sweet. All Hail Merry treats are an amalgam of different recipes she’s learned, but O’Brien puts her own spin on each.
On December 27, she ushered in a new chapter in her food empire, as all four Central Markets in North Texas began carrying Hail Merry. “In the next three years, I want to have a $10 million company. And in 10 years, I want a $50 million company,” O’Brien says. “I want to create a national food brand.”
